(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel, and a display device.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) includes two panels with pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal (LC) layer disposed between the two panels with a dielectric anisotropy. The pixel electrodes are arranged in the form of a matrix, and connected to switching elements such as thin film transistors (TFTs) to sequentially receive data voltages per the respective rows. The common electrode is formed on the entire surface of the panel to receive a common voltage. From the circuit perspective, the pixel and the common electrodes and the LC layer disposed between those electrodes form an LC capacitor, which basically forms a pixel together with a switching element connected thereto.
Voltages are applied to the two electrodes to form an electric field at the LC layer, and the transmittance of the light passing the LC layer is controlled by varying the intensity of the electric field to thereby display the desired images. In order to prevent the LC layer from being deteriorated due to the long-termed application of the one-directional electric field, the polarity of the data voltage with respect to the common voltage is inverted per the respective frames, rows or pixels.
In the case where the polarity of the data voltage is inverted per the respective pixels (referred to hereinafter as the “dot inversion”), vertical flickers or vertical crosstalks generated due to the kickback voltage are reduced to thereby enhance the display image quality. However, as the polarity of the data voltage is inverted per predetermined rows and columns, the operation of the application of the data voltage to the data lines becomes complicated, and the problematic signal delay of the data lines becomes serious. Accordingly, in order to reduce the signal delay, the processing steps are complicated, including the step of forming data lines with a low resistance material, and the production cost is increased.
By contrast, in the case where the polarity of the data voltage is inverted per predetermined columns (referred to hereinafter as the “column inversion”), the polarity of the data voltage flown through the data line is inverted per the respective frames, and hence, the problematic signal delay of the data line is significantly reduced.
However, as the column inversion does not involve the advantage of the dot inversion, the display image quality of the LCD is deteriorated due to the vertical flickers and the vertical cross-talks.
The LCD further includes gate lines for transmitting gate signals to control the switching elements, data lines for transmitting the data voltages to be applied to electric field generating electrodes, and gate and data drivers for generating the gate signals and the data voltages. The gate and the data drivers are usually formed with a plurality of driving integrated circuit chips, and the number of the chips should be reduced as many as possible to decrease the production cost. Particularly, the data driving integrated circuit chips involve higher cost compared to the gate driving circuit chips, and hence, it is advantageous to reduce the number of the chips.